The movie NETWORK

[Craig Clark]

Joe Varo writes:

> I finally saw the movie NETWORK for the first time over the weekend; the
> local PBS station aired it late Saturday night.
> 
> Anyone else ever pick up some Pynchonian overtones to this movie?
> Especially the scene where Ned Beatty's character reads the riot act to
> the Peter Finch character.  I saw "Them" all through the movie.

Right on, Joe! In fact HAG and I mentioned this a few months ago in 
conversation - I'm sure you'll be able to dig it up in Andrew's 
archives. The most strikingly Pynchonian moment for me comes when the 
SLA-type revolutionary movement are reduced to squabbling over the 
syndication rights to their struggle against capitalist tyranny. Like 
the Counterforce, they are double-minded in the presence of massive 
amounts of money. I suspect that Paddy Chayefsky (screenwriter) must have 
read a lot of TRP. Like _Gravity's Rainbow_ the film is a major work 
of art which attracted a lot of attention but which is nonetheless pretty 
uncompromisingly harsh in its indictment of money and power relations 
in the USA.

Craig Clark

"Living inside the system is like driving across
the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent
on suicide."
   - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"